Thud
by applebyeye
Summary: A little chao interrupts the boys one morning.


Eggman would despise this picture. His two greatest foes, the banes of all his magnificent plans. The two lightning-fast and unbeatable hedgehogs he hated with an eternal flame. Splayed out on a sofa together one soft afternoon.

Well, Sonic was splayed out, with his hands interlocked behind his head and his back stretched across Shadow's lap. The dark hedgehog was reading some boring book about weapons mechanics or medieval torture devices or whatever. That wasn't the important part.

Sonic gazed up at him, fighting back a smirk.

"I told you to cut that out," Shadow muttered without looking away from his page.

"Not doin' nothin'," Sonic said with as much energy as he could muster. While everyone knew him for his hyperactivity and complete intolerance for waiting on anything, Sonic still appreciated his rest days. He would've taken a nap at this point if it didn't mean he'd miss watching Shadow right now.

The agent refused to admit it, but Sonic had seen the truth with his own eyes—whenever Shadow had to read something, he inevitably mouthed along with the words. The Ultimate Lifeform had the same reading habits as a toddler. It was one of the most adorable things about him, in a long list of adorable things.

"Stop staring. Don't make me tell you again."

"I'm not staring."

"You are."

"Can't prove it."

Shadow breathed in slowly through his nose and kept reading.

The blue devil was just about to start poking at his boyfriend when a loud thud bounced through the room, making both hedgehogs jolt.

Sonic leapt off the couch, fully alert. If that sound was the precursor to an attack, he couldn't take chances. "The heck was that?"

In a blink, Shadow was on his feet too, his book thrown to the pillows. "Kitchen. Something slammed into the window."

Sonic didn't bother asking why he sounded so sure. From experience, Shadow's Ultimate Senses were always right. The blue blur took the lead, Shadow tailing him closely. On entry, nothing in the kitchen was out of place, and the window was intact. There was a scuff mark on it, though... faint red streaks.

"What the..." Sonic said.

Before he could protest, Shadow tugged at Sonic's arm, forcing the hedgehog behind his back. He approached the window and briefly scanned the outdoors. When he looked down, he froze.

"...Ah."

"Whazzit?" Sonic asked, shouldering in on Shadow so he could see too. His heart stuttered when he noticed it.

A little chao, a dark flying type as far as Sonic could tell. It was badly injured, that much was clear—it lay on its side, its chubby little body curled in on itself, one of its tiny wings mangled like it had a run in with a meat grinder.

With no need to think, Sonic raced back through the house, out the back door and into his and Shadow's garden. He took care to make sure he angled his slipstream away from the chao. Now the window wasn't between them, Sonic could hear the little creature whimpering.

He knelt down to pick it up, but hesitated. It would be difficult, to move the chao without jostling its injuries.

Sonic leaned over it, trying to figure out the best angle to help it from. In the seconds he took to do that, a pair of Air Skates appeared next to the chao. Sonic glanced up to find Shadow had pulled a clean tea towel from a drawer. He bent over, swept the chao up in one move, and swaddled it in the towel. The chao wailed and fussed, fighting to get out of the restricting cloth, and the cradle Shadow made with his arms.

He lifted his red eyes from the bundle, his gaze locking with Sonic's for a moment.

Sonic smiled softly. This was a sight hardly anyone in the world had seen. So many people believed Shadow was incapable of a gentle touch, but that was wrong.

"We should take it inside, yeah?" he said.

Shadow stepped back toward their house, his eyes fixed on his charge. Sonic darted ahead so he could hold the door open, and shut it soundlessly behind his and Shadow's backs.

"I wonder what happened..." Sonic said.

"Escaped a hunt, most likely," was the reply.

Sonic nodded slowly. While they didn't live in the middle of nowhere, they did live fairly far into the countryside. All kinds of creatures lived out here, Shadow couldn't be too off the mark.

Sonic followed as Shadow returned to their sofa, hovering closely, trying to figure out what their next move should be. It came to him while his gaze rested on his boyfriend. With a well-practiced hand he slipped between Shadow's head quills and pulled out the communicator he knew the agent kept there.

"I'll call Vanilla, she can tell us the vet they take Cheese to. Knowing her, it'll be a good one."

Another thing anyone who didn't know Shadow couldn't guess—he kept Vanilla's number in his contacts. Well, how else could he arrange playdates for Cream? As Sonic searched the contacts under 'R' for 'Rabbit', he continued, "How long d'you think it'll take to run this li'l guy to the city? Sure hope someone's available now, who knows if it's been flying around all morn—"

"Don't waste your time," Shadow interrupted.

"Huh?"

The dark hero looked up from the chao, who was still struggling to escape its cloth, now panting with the effort, its wide eyes staring up at the giant holding it.

"There's no point in calling a vet. It's dying."

Sonic's mouth hung open. "Wuh—says who?"

Shadow adjusted the chao so it was resting on his lap, then raised his hand, the one that had been curled under the bundle. The white cotton of his glove was soaked through with blood. So much that Sonic barely believed it, coming from such a little body.

He felt like he'd swallowed a stone. Shadow wasn't hurt, he forced himself to recognise, only the chao. He shook his head at himself and let a scowl grow on his face. "Uh, since when did you hold a degree in veternary... reveteran... vet doctor science? There's gotta be something they can do once it's in a—"

"It's dying," Shadow said again, a hard line in his voice. His attention returned to the chao. Once more he raised his hand. A thin slash of lightning appeared between his index and middle finger.

Sonic frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Putting it out of its misery."

"No!" Sonic abandoned Shadow's communicator—the little device bounced across the floorboards and vanished under an end table. Before Shadow could bring his hand down, Sonic shot forward and grabbed his boyfriend's wrist, his grip like a handcuff. Shadow's Chaos Spear shot up to the ceiling and jumped around on it for a moment. It dissipated with a dramatic fizz. The chao squealed at the commotion, working harder than ever to break free, its little limbs flapping around frantically.

Shadow stared up at Sonic, in shock and then indignation. Sonic might have laughed at his expression if the situation wasn't serious. After all, it was rich for him to get shirty, considering what he'd been about to do.

"Sonic, let go," Shadow said evenly. "Nothing can be done."

"You didn't even try to help it!" Sonic yelled, his nose scrunched up. A long time ago he'd made peace with Shadow's approach to things. Sometimes he was not merciful when he could be, sometimes he wasn't actually a nice person, but Sonic determined that regardless, Shadow was and would always be a _good_ one. He had been sure of that.

"I _am_ helping," Shadow growled. While Sonic's voice grew louder the further into an argument they went, Shadow turned the other way. His voice dropped in volume like the last few seconds of a whistling missile just before it hit.

Sonic was possibly the only person on the planet who he couldn't intimidate with that. "Huh, the definition of 'help' must've changed since the last time I cracked open a dictionary," he said. "If you're gonna be like that, just hand it over."

He opened his arms. Shadow glared like he was trying to steal something precious from him, and didn't move at all.

"Have it your way. Call a vet."

He turned to look down at the chao again, still glaring. The poor little thing began to cry, one of its arms slipping from the towel and flapping around frantically.

Sonic glowered in silence for a second. He considered snatching the chao away, but that wouldn't be helpful when it was already so freaked out. He took a deep breath, turned his back on Shadow, and bent down to look for his dropped comm.

The moment he found it, he flipped it open and dialled out. Once it was ringing, he stepped to the far wall and leaned back on it. From here he could keep an eye on the other two.

His anger settled as he watched the other hedgehog. Shadow's face had turned soft, and he'd taken to smoothly stroking the chao's head with his unblemished hand.

The chao's breath hitched every second with its sobs, but the breaths mellowed out as the seconds ticked by. Shadow caught it up in his gaze, like he was hypnotising it.

The comm line came alive. "Good morning, Shadow!" Vanilla's voice filtered through. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hi, Vanilla, it's me," Sonic murmured. He suddenly recognised that he'd been too loud before, and now the chao was slowly calming down he didn't want to aggravate it all over again.

"Oh, Sonic! Equally a pleasure..." She must have heard something in his voice because her next words were, "Is everything alright?"

Sonic's mouth twitched before he launched into a quick explanation.

"Oh dear." Vanilla tutted in sympathy. "I need to look up our vet in the address book, please give me a moment."

Sonic hummed, and the line went quiet as Vanilla set her comm down. He refocused on Shadow. Remarkably, he had soothed the chao out of crying, and the little guy stared transfixed while Shadow cooed at it. Despite his tenderness, there was pain in his eyes.

Sonic's mouth turned dry, like his body thought he was going to say more harsh things and wanted to stop him. He cleared his throat and was about to reach out to his boyfriend when the chao's breath picked up again.

Its eyes widened in fear as it began to hyperventilate. It arched up, trying harder than ever to burst out of its towel. Shadow held it close to his chest, to discourage it from moving.

He didn't have to keep that up for long. They both saw the final desperate breath the little creature gave before it stilled.

Sonic felt his face try to screw up, but he fought it back. He chose to consider Shadow instead of the little body, and caught how Shadow sighed like a weight had come off his shoulders.

"Hello, dear?" Vanilla's voice returned. "I have the address. It's a walk-in centre, so you two can—"

"Ah, thanks Vanilla, but... the little guy's kicked it. Couldn't hang on."

"Oh..." Vanilla said, obviously upset. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, it's not on you," Sonic told her firmly. Shadow lifted his face and looked at his boyfriend for the first time in a hot minute. His expression was guarded. "Talk to you later," Sonic said before he snapped the comm shut.

He watched Shadow carefully keep the dead chao to him as he got up. The dark hedgehog turned and placed the little thing down on the seat he'd just vacated, wrapping its broken body fully in the towel.

"Shadow..." Sonic began.

Shadow backed away, peeled off both his gloves and slammed them down on the floor. Without looking at Sonic, he strode to the kitchen.

Sonic followed quickly. Peering through the doorway, he found Shadow at the sink washing his hands. His eyes were on the window—staring at the streaks the chao had left, Sonic guessed. He needed to clean that ASAP. After he'd done something more important.

"Shadow—" he said again.

"I didn't kill it," Shadow snapped.

Sonic blinked. "I know. I was watching. You comforted it."

Shadow had held his shoulders up, but they slowly came back down with Sonic's assurance. "Yeah," he muttered.

Sonic came close. Ignoring the dark back quills, he wrapped his arms around Shadow's waist and pressed their heads together. He glanced down over Shadow's shoulder, swallowing the aversion he felt at seeing bloody water pour off Shadow's hand.

"Some people seem to believe I have the power of life or death with just a thought," Shadow said, so quietly that Sonic wouldn't have heard it over the sound of the tap if he wasn't so close. "That's how they behave, at least."

Sonic frowned. No wonder he was defensive. "Yeah well, I'm not 'some people'. You were right anyway, we couldn't save it."

Shadow scrubbed vigorously at his hands.

"Y'know," Sonic murmured, "even though it had a pretty sad ending, if it had a good life, it can reincarnate, right?"

Shadow hummed. He turned off the tap and shifted away from Sonic's hold, reaching for a towel.

Sonic finally let him go. He thought back to what Cream and Vanilla had taught him about chao life cycles. "And if it _is_ coming back, it woulda transformed by now." He waited until Shadow looked back at him before he held his hand out. "Let's go check." Shadow took it and let him lead them back.

Sure enough, the chao's body had disappeared, replaced with a spotted blue egg poking out of its towel bed. Sonic laughed at the sight. "Looks like we got ourselves our first pet! Whatcha wanna name it?"

Shadow shrugged. A smile graced his face, so small that Sonic wondered if he even knew it was there. "You name it," he told Sonic.

Sonic approached the egg and picked it up gently. He only needed seconds to come up with something. He turned back to present the egg to Shadow. "Mercy."

Shadow took the egg and his smile bloomed out. Sonic thought, if only Shadow had done that in the chao's first life. His smile would've been enough to heal it.

* * *

Thanks for reading! ^^


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